(NewsNation) — An initial CT scan by police of missing Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Melissa Casias’ skull showed no bullets or projectiles, a report said.

Los Angeles Magazine said investigators told the publication the 53-year-old’s remains were found skeletonized and with a handgun located near the body.

Casias’ body was discovered by a hiker in New Mexico last month, nearly a year after she disappeared.

Her disappearance gained national attention when it was linked with a larger group of U.S. scientists, government employees and contractors who vanished or died under mysterious circumstances.

LA Magazine contributor Lauren Conlin says the recent developments make it tougher to conclude that Casias died by suicide, which investigators haven’t ruled out.

“If your remains have been skeletonized for over a year, I don’t think we’re talking about a skeleton, and forgive me for the Halloween spirit here that could sort of remain upright,” she said to “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “That just doesn’t make sense.”

Conlin stressed she never thought Casias took her own life, noting that when Casias disappeared, she took her toothbrush and her thyroid medication.

Those are “things that might indicate you’re planning to stay alive,” the contributor added.

Pieces surrounding Melissa Casias’ remains don’t add up: Expert

Morgan Wright, CEO and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, stated that he feels the pieces don’t connect about when Casias was found.

He specifically pointed to ballistics and its impact on the brain.

“Was it a wadcutter, a semi-wadcutter?” Wright questioned. “Was it a jacket at hollow point? I would expect to find the round there, because a bullet, when it hits, it impacts. It spreads out even with brain matter. But a jacketed, a full metal jacket, is going to do what we call it through and through.”

The expert also said that when it comes to skeletonized remains, all the fiber and tissue are usually destroyed.

“You don’t get slumped up on a tree,” Wright noted. “Now, if that’s the case, then you do get into, ‘I wonder, is it a staged crime scene?’ Most of the time, in every crime scene I’ve worked on, there are skeletonized remains, and there’s no connective tissue left. Everything’s on the ground in pieces.”